Water De-Carbonization on '97 Expedition

[wavinwayne]

This evening, I did a water de-carbonization treatment on our '97 Expedition with 120k miles.

The main reason I did it was to see if it would make any difference in the pinging that the Expedition exhibits under light load. It doesn't ping much at all under heavy load.

The container I used was a 20 oz. water bottle. I filled it up with distilled water. Here is how I did the rest of the procedure:

Removed the vacuum line from the brake booster.
Started engine (Engine was already warm; if it matters).
Held the water bottle close to the vacuum line.
Let the vacuum line suck ONLY A VERY SMALL AMOUNT OF WATER AT A TIME.
Any time the idle started to drop, I eased off the water for a few seconds.
It took me approx 20 minutes to use all 20 oz's of water.
When water was gone, I re-attached the brake booster vacuum line, & took the Expy for a test drive.

On my test drive, the Expy sputtered a little for a half mile or so. Then it settled down, & the pinging seems to have eased up. It is not gone, though. The biggest difference I noticed is that the tail pipe is spotless on the inside now. I wonder if it did any good in the cylinders.

Fuel system treatment is next to try & get rid of pinging.

 

[bruce381]

wayne did you clean MAF that may help ping
bruce

 

[GoldenRod]

wavinwayne,

You might be on to something there; I'm going to have to keep a close eye on you.

 

[wavinwayne]

quote:

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Originally posted by bruce381:
wayne did you clean MAF that may help ping
bruce

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I haven't tried that yet. I will try to do that some time this week. Do I need to remove the sensor from it's housing to clean it?

My wife is beginning to grow anxious of me being under the hood so much lately; can't say I blame her.

 

[wavinwayne]

I just wanted to pass along a little more information. From what I have been able to gather by reading about de-carboning a car, this should NEVER be done with a cold engine. Always make sure the engine is up to full operating temperature before beginning the water de-carbon procedure.

Here's the disclaimer I should have added above:
IF YOU ATTEMPT THE ABOVE DESCRIBED PROCEDURE, YOU DO SO AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU KILL YOUR ENGINE, I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE.

 

[74 Laguna]

Years ago guys around here would take an extra windshield washer bottle and hook up the hose directly to the intake manifold. They would just push a button and shoot water directly into the engine. It kept things clean.

 

[bruce381]

quote:

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Originally posted by wavinwayne:

quote:

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Originally posted by bruce381:
wayne did you clean MAF that may help ping
bruce

---

I haven't tried that yet. I will try to do that some time this week. Do I need to remove the sensor from it's housing to clean it?

My wife is beginning to grow anxious of me being under the hood so much lately; can't say I blame her.

---

they cover it on the ford forum but take of a bat cable then take out the MAF sensor DO NOT BREAK the small wired then spray lighly with a NON OIl NON residue cleaner I use a "electric contact cleaner" then blow dry and re aseemble.

The maf on my 94 explorer was "fuzzy" with stuff and it would allow the engine to run lean now ping is gone I will do the 99 expy in a week or so also.
bruce

 

[wavinwayne]

The location of the MAF in the Exploder is a lot different than in the Expedition. I found by looking at it last night that the MAF sensor in the Expedition can be spray cleaned without removing it from it's housing.

I bought a can of CRC electronics cleaner spray. I plan on disconnecting the battery, then spraying the MAF sensor until it is squeaky clean. That should do it. FWIW, it looks clean currently; I wonder if cleaning it would do any good.

 

[55Test]

I took the MAF out of my Crown Vic and it looked clean but I sprayed it anyway. Don't think it made much of a difference. If you do decide to remove the MAF from it's housing (be careful doing it) you might need a special Torx bit to do it. The MAF on my Crown Vic needs a T20 security bit to remove it, I actually couldn't find a T20 security bit so I used a T20 headlight bit which did the trick.

 

[robbobster]

Wayne how many miles on your spark plugs?

I had a bad ping recently...replacing the EGR/DPFR really reduced it, changing the plugs got rid of the rest.

 

[wavinwayne]

quote:

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Originally posted by robbobster:
Wayne how many miles on your spark plugs?

I had a bad ping recently...replacing the EGR/DPFR really reduced it, changing the plugs got rid of the rest.

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New Motorcraft plugs & wires were installed by ME on 9-3-05. They have 5k miles on them.

EGR valve is less than a year old, too.

FWIW, since I did the water de-carbon treatment, the "pinging" has now diminished to the point that you have to try really hard just to notice it.

Tonight, I'm replacing the air filter (with a Wix), & cleaning the MAF sensor. Then, that's it; I've got the Expy running like the well-oiled machined that it is. No more maintenance for a while.........except to change the fuel filter........and the transmission fluid.........and the brakes..........

I'm glad I'm not a chick. Guy stuff is much more interesting.

 

[muddawgs]

the last ford maf i took off had a blob of hard glue like material on one of the security torx heads. i could'nt get it off so i dremeled a slot in it and took it off that way and cleaned with the crc cleaner also and let it dry. didnt make a difference in my case but maybe in yours. fwiw, i always glue in the spray tube on the spray nozzle when i clean mafs, throttle bodies, etc.. just be careful. good luck.

...mudd

 

[Kestas]

Try repeating the water decarbonizing treatment. I recommend plumbing the water line into the passenger cabin area into a gallon of water that you can throttle. The next time you go for a long drive, you can give it a good treatment, without taxing your patience. Better yet, give it a couple of treatments.

 

[wavinwayne]

I'm done screwing around with this thing for a while. I put in a new air filter & cleaned the MAF sensor last night. The pinging is pretty well gone. No more Expy maintenance for a while for me.

 

[Gary Allan]

I know what you mean. What's fun can turn into a recurring chore. Although we like to tinker with our toys ...we like are actions to have some permanence to them. It's that hunt/kill imparitive, I guess. Our dragons must be slayed at some point. New ones will come along soon enough.

 

[GoldenRod]

quote:

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Originally posted by Kestas:
Try repeating the water decarbonizing treatment. I recommend plumbing the water line into the passenger cabin area into a gallon of water that you can throttle. The next time you go for a long drive, you can give it a good treatment, without taxing your patience. Better yet, give it a couple of treatments.

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Alright let me get this straight: you want him to leave the vacuum line disconnected from the power brake booster, somehow extend that line into the inside of the car, so that he can add water to it as he is driving? How is he supposed to operate the brakes while doing this?

 

[Kestas]

Sorry, I didn't catch that detail. My intention was to have him plumb it into a manifold vacuum port, ideally somewhere upstream of the manifold to distribute the water evenly among the cylinders. I certainly wouldn't want him driving around without booster power to his brakes.

 

[TheTanSedan]

We learned to do this with a glass 8-oz COKE bottle. Easy to hold in one hand, regulating the water flow under a thumb, while working the throttle with the other hand. This was the first step of a tune-up (well-warmed motor).

The "old days" were a bit easier.

And it worked well. Probably a good addition to the ARX clean-up at 25m, and using FP-60/LC-20 otherwise.